The Top 5 Items I Loved as a New Mom

It seems lately that I find myself giving more advice about baby items. While I’m no expert, since I am a mom and have tried out many of the baby items on the market today, I am more than willing to be a resource for my friends that will be having babies soon. I feel that I need to be honest with them about which products you NEED and which ones are nice to have for convenience. You really want to have a nice mix of both so that you can also adjust to this beautiful new change in your life. After speaking with a friend today, I remember back to the top five items that made my life so much easier when my baby was still a newborn and I wanted to share that list with you! These are all more convenient items that I would not do without if I had another child.

1. The Boppy Pillow

The Boppy Pillow is not just for mothers who breastfeed. I have absolutely NO upper arm strength and my new baby weighed over eight pounds! This wonderful pillow fit around my middle and helped me simply hold the baby for longer periods of time without my arms hurting or going numb. I truly believe the Boppy pillow helps create a much more comfortable bonding experience between you and your baby. Not only that, but the Boppy grows with your baby. When it is time for them to learn how to sit, the Boppy helps to steady them while they sit up. My daughter still uses it to this day as a pillow to sleep on. Other uses for the Boppy? It makes a great photography prop to use underneath a sheet for taking baby photos to send to family! My husband also likes to put it on his head, and pretend he is a “lion” to get our daughter to laugh.

2. A Bouncy Seat

My daughter disliked her swing and screamed when we put her in it, however was at peace with her bouncy seat. Babies tend to get a LOT of gas. The soothing vibration while being in the slanted position seemed to help rid the gas and help out with her bowel movements. When we put her in her bouncy seat, she seemed to calm down and relax. This device was also where she first started playing with the “danglies” that hung off of the seat. She would use her weight to create movement and use her hand/eye coordination to touch the toys. Babies tend to grow out of these bouncy seats pretty quickly once they start being able to do some tummy time, so this is more of a convenience item, simply because you can’t use it as long, but definitely saved us some sanity from the crying.

3. The Sleep Sheep by Cloud B

This sheep was a lifesaver when we got ready to start taking our daughter to daycare or trips in the car. The Sleep Sheep has four different types of sounds that you can set it to and they are very soothing for babies. Our daughter’s favorite was the “rain” setting. As soon as we would turn on this calming noise, our daughter would be able to calm enough to finally fall asleep. This was an important part of our transition between home and daycare also. We purchased the “Sheep On The Go” and placed it on her car seat. While we were away and she was in a new place I think that this sheep helped give her something that she could associate to home. I know that daily when I would come to pick her up, the babysitter would always have it playing to calm her down. Cloud B has many animals you can choose from: a turtle, dolphin, ladybug, giraffe, and polar bear cub.

4. The Diaper Genie

If you use disposable diapers, you have to have one of these. I have always possessed a keen sense of smell and the smell of diapers absolutely makes me sick. Somehow, the wonderful powers of the Diaper Genie conceal the smell so that you and guests that come to visit your baby, can hang out in the nursery. Also, I seriously cannot believe how many diapers this thing will hold. My husband and I constantly get a kick out of the huge strand of diapers we pull from it when we change the bag. It is insane!

5. Large, Square Receiving Blankets

At my baby shower I received a lot of rectangular shaped receiving blankets. These blankets are okay for swaddling your baby, unless you have a Houdini like I did who constnatly wormed her way out of them and just smiled. Then someone gave me some huge square blankets and I was in love! These are SO much easier to swaddle your baby with. If you are currently pregnant and reading this, swaddling your baby helps keeps their arms and legs close and is supposed to provide comfort like they were used to while in the womb. It may look crazy to wrap your baby up like a burrito, but it actually works and helps them sleep longer. Babies tend to wake themselves up with sudden limb movement, so swaddling helps keep them all together and calm.

I’m sad to limit my list to just five, as I could go on and on about great products and what they have done for my life, but I wanted to give the readers a chance to tell about what made their experience as a new parent a little more comfortable.

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Comments

My friend swears by the Sleep Sheep. We just use the fan. Funny thing, I can’t remember back to the things I couldn’t live without (my girls are only 3 and 6)! One thing I do remember is the backpack carrier for #2. #1 didn’t needed my whole attention and having #2 in the front carrier got in the way. I wore the backpack carrier everywhere!

Amanda,
Thanks for the insite on the top 5 items. I will keep them in mind when registring for my baby shower. Oh, I did tell my husband about the reasons for a bouncy seat and I do believe I have him talked into it now. 🙂 Thanks for your wisdom!

Great list! Our bouncy seat was indispensable for my older daughter, she loved to hang out and relax in there so I would move it around the house and have the perfect place to set her down. My second daughter, however, has been much more active and energetic since birth and never really wanted to sit still in there… so who knows? Babies are finicky folks! 🙂

Thanks so much for joining us for Friendly Friday, I hope you have a great weekend!

Ohmygosh if I could earn a living helping new moms figure out what items they do and don’t need and helping them bargain hunt for what they do need I would do it in one second! I love giving my advice/opinions about this kind of thing and always wish I had had someone to do that for me the first time around!

I would seriously have a mini-breakdown anytime we accidentally left the Boppy somewhere! We moved from Austin, TX with our son, who was about 3 months old. Stopping at gas stations to feed him was made 10 times easier simply by having the Boppy! I would imagine that would be true even if you weren’t nursing, as well!
One thing we’ve been incredibly grateful for is the Diaper Champ by Babytrend. Coming from a cloth diapering angle, the champ is almost perfect. It allows you to use plain trash bags instead of having to buy expensive inserts (they just don’t work very well when you are removing the diapers to put in the laundry) and does a great job of sealing in the smell. Sometimes the lid gets stuck when the Champ gets too full, but all you have to do is open it up and push the diapers down. I guess that sounds kind of unpleasant, but if you’ve been dealing with cloth diapers your gross-out factor starts to dissipate…
Great post, Amanda! Keep it up!
Also, I totally agree with the Bouncy Seat as well!